LISBON, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Portugal issued 1.2 billion euros (1.4 billion U.S. dollars) worth of five and 10-year treasury bonds on Wednesday with both maturities paying the lowest ever interest rates, according to the IGCP, Portugal's debt management agency.
The 10-year notes took an allotment yield of 1.67 percent, a record low for the tenor. By way of comparison, when Portugal sold 10-year bonds in March it paid 1.778 percent. At an auction in February 2017, the coupon was 2.046 percent.
High demand this time round allowed the IGCP to auction 483 million euros worth of the 10-year bonds.
The five-year bonds paid an allotment yield of 0.529 percent. This was also a record low and down on the 0.577 percent the same dated paper took at the last auction in February.
There was further good news for the Portuguese economy on Wednesday with the National Statistics Institute (INE) announcing improving quarterly unemployment figures. Unemployment in the first three months of 2018 averaged 7.9 percent, 0.2 percentage points lower than Q4 2017 and 2.2 percentage points lower than Q1 2017.
